perseverate
/pəˈsɛvəreɪt
/verb [no object] Psychology
Repeat or prolong an action, thought, or utterance after the stimulus that prompted it has ceased: they perseverate under stress...
- Bitterman and Couvillon found that bees tended to perseverate - to choose the color for which they had most recently been rewarded.
- So he was compensating for the uncertainty factor by perseverating on the stressor with which he was at least already familiar - that stressor being work.
- I have a mild frontal lobe disorder that leads me to perseverate, and thus I've continued to work out the theory and do experiments anyway.
Derivatives
perseveration
- Problems in response inhibition and response perseveration are well documented in studies of children with ADHD.
- Such self-regulatory perseveration is characterized by unproductive rumination about the failure.
- With that change, they found that bees no longer demonstrated a preference for perseveration.
Origin
Early 20th century: from Latin perseverat- 'strictly abided by', from the verb perseverare (see persevere).